Andrew, the editor and blogger, at Retrevo dislikes the Apple TV and gives 5 reasons why. These reasons are not good and don’t make sense with just a little bit of research and thought. Here is my rebuttal.

Fling joysticks for iPad

The biggest news over the last couple of days has not been the advancement of new technology or the proliferation of new social media. It has not been a new product or must have gadget. It has been the removal of something. Apple began to quietly remove and apps with “objectionable content.” It all began with an app called - Wobble iBoobs and grew from there. At last check the count was over 5,000 apps removed but not from all sexy app developers. While smaller companies and developers like those responsible for Wobbly iBoobs see their app magically erased from the store; Sports Illustrated and even Playboy remain in the store. The reasoning for this is, “The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format,” as told to us by Phil Schiller, Apple’s head of worldwide product marketing.

What started this? Apple was getting an increasing number of complaints from women who found the contest offensive and objectionable as well as parents concerned about what their children might be seeing. What was failed to be mentioned here was that every app with questionable material has a warning that it should only be downloaded by someone 17 years of age or older. Anyone under that age that still downloads has violated Apple’s terms of service so there should be no children downloading. Any child young enough to be maladjusted from an app like that shouldn’t have an iPhone or at least not without parental supervision. Women offended by these apps should simple make a choice not to download them. I don’t have a single app like that on my phone but I believe in the freedom of other people to have them if they so choose.

The end result is that the Apple brand is as squeaky clean and G-Rated as Mickey Mouse and they want to keep it that way, even if that means continue to censor the apps the way China censors its Internet usage and pulling these Gestapo-like tactics of sweeping through the app store and eradicating all apps Schiller deems unfit. This is reminiscent of Apple’s decision to deny Google Voice.

Their management over the hardware and software with an app approval process is brilliant in terms of moderating memory usage and keeping the device stable. However the dictatorship of content goes beyond ensuring developers keep clean code and is getting into a realm of censorship. They are not the MPAA, FCC, etc and should put the onus on the user or the parent to choose what is sensible for them. If a parent doesn’t watch their child, the app gets removed and all the legitimate adults lose out. That is like saying that HBO will take off late night racy shows because children are waking up and turning on the TV.

Bottom line - Police the behavior of your children and yourselves so the company doesn’t have to. Apple; stop being overly sensitive and allow creativity and innovation to flourish in your closed-platform or people will leave for open source projects that will allow it.